What’s that you’re doing, Mr. Czerner?

“I’m testing a technique for repairing compressor blades that I developed myself. About 300 blades are mounted in an engine, and some of them will eventually be damaged by the constant bombardment with fine grains of dust or sand. The damage is never the same, though: Sometimes it’s slight, sometimes massive, sometimes deep, and sometimes superficial. I cannot imagine a more interesting job than developing fully automatic repair methods that take such differences into account. First, the damaged area (usually just a few square millimeters), has to be measured. Then a powdered metal alloy is applied and melted with a laser, after which it immediately hardens. The newly bonded surface is then smoothed with planers. This method has many advantages over the old, standard method. It’s more precise, more effective and more reliable, too.”